Outlander Wiki:Style Guide
This page is a guide to writing articles on the Outlander Wiki. If you are new to the Outlander Wiki, please also read Outlander Wiki:Community Portal before you begin editing. Contributors to the Outlander Wiki should use this page as a guideline to maintaining the consistency of articles across the wiki. If you have questions or concerns about the policies on this page, please contact an admin. General Guidelines Following are some general tips for editing any page on the Outlander Wiki: *'American English': To maintain consistency, American English spellings and grammatical conventions should be used throughout the Wiki. *'References': Reference tags ' ' should be used to create footnotes. These typically contain additional information or evidence about the body of the article, that would otherwise disrupt the narrative flow of the text. For instance, references to a particular chapter in which the information is found should be included in a footnote, rather than an in-text citation. That being said, sometimes it may be appropriate to write in the main text something like, "In Dragonfly in Amber, Jamie and Claire meet various members of the French court..." etc., but any further textual clues like chapters or page numbers should be enclosed in the ' ' tags. *'Titles of Works': Most written works should be italicized, e.g. Dragonfly in Amber. HOWEVER, novellas and short stories should be written in regular text within double quotation marks, e.g. "The Space Between". *'Writing Style': If you're familiar with the way are written, you should have some idea about how to write articles in such a way that they are formal and dispassionate in tone, and include only factual information. Any speculation should be reserved for the Forum or article comments. *'Original content': All content published on this wiki should be original, not copied from other websites verbatim. When it is necessary to include content from an outside source, it is best to paraphrase or summarize, and link back to the original with a reference citation. **Exception: Sometimes it may make sense to copy content from Wikipedia as a stopgap until original content can be written, usually for articles about real life people or events. When copying directly from a Wikipedia article, be sure to include the template at the top of the article. Page Layouts Character Pages When creating a new character page, copy and paste the following into the Source editor to get started: Name in Bold and brief introductory paragraph. Personal History Events of the Novels Personality Physical Appearance Relationships Name Trivia TV Series Appearances Gallery References NOTE: For the long list of book codes (virgins=true|outlander=true|exile=true etc.) only the books that are relevant to that character should be included. If you have questions about this, please ask La Dame Blanche. 'Infobox' *'Full Name' should contain all known given names and surname used by the character. *'Alias' should contain any additional names or nicknames commonly used by the character. *'Title' should be used for characters holding a title of nobility. Courtesy titles may be better placed under Alias. *'Extended' (family) should include names of characters who are particularly relevant to the character of the article, rather than every known relative of that character. Family members that are associated by fact only and never in circumstance do not need to be added. Sometimes "See family article >" may be used to point to more distant family. 'Article Sections' *After the "}}" of the Infobox, write a brief summary explaining who the character is, starting with the character's name in bold. This should give just the basics about the character, ideally without revealing any major spoilers. *'Personal History': This should be a more detailed biography of the character, including events that occurred before the series' timeline. Should be written in past tense. *'Events of the Novels': Summary of the character's role in the books. Should be written in the . Include subheadings for each book in which the character appears. For example: Outlander series ''Outlander Dragonfly in Amber Lord John Series Lord John and the Private Matter *'Personality': Describe the character's known traits. *'Physical Appearance': Describe the character's appearance (as it is described in the books, not the television adaptation). *'Relationships': Describe the character's most important relationships. Use subheadings for each relationship. *'Name': Provide an etymological history of the character's name. This can be found on various sites around the web; Behind the Name is a decent resource, or you can try googling "name name meaning". Use reference syntax to cite your source. *'Trivia': This is a section where you can add fun and interesting facts about a character. *'TV Series': If the character has been cast in the television adaptation, indicate the actor who portrays the character here. **'Appearances': List of seasons and episodes in which the character appears. Indicate the actor, if character is portrayed by multiple actors. **'Gallery': Insert a photo gallery with pictures of the character in the TV show (NOT the actor). Book Pages The following (at minimum) should be included in an article about a book: '''Book Title' and a sentence or two in summary. Plot Summary Book Covers External Resources References See also Article Sections *After the "}}" of the Infobox, write a sentence or two in summary, starting with the name of the book in bold. This should give just the basics about the book, ideally without revealing any major spoilers. *'Plot Summary': Describes major events and through-lines of the book, in more of a broad overview than a detailed, point-by-point outline. May contain spoilers. *'Book Covers': Covers other than the one used in the infobox. Currently the wiki does not seek to include covers other than those published in the US and UK. Interest in doing so may be proposed in the for discussion. *'External Resources': Pages outside of the Wiki that may be of interest in relation to the book. Optional sections include: *'Characters': A listing of the major players and their role in the story. *'Timeline of Significant Events': A more detailed outline of what happens in the story. Usually organized by year, and thereunder by month. See Drums of Autumn for an example. *'Maps': Created using . *'Outlander: Season X': If the book has been adapted for the STARZ television series, this section may be added with brief, notable information about the relevant season. Location Pages The following (at minimum) should be included in an article about a location: Location name and brief summary. History Events of the Novels Gallery Trivia References Article Sections *After the "}}" of the Infobox, write a brief summary explaining where the location is, starting with the location's name in bold. This should give just the basics about the location, ideally without revealing any major spoilers. *'History': Any known information about the origins of the location. For real life locations, this may involve using outside sources, with proper citations. *'Events of the Novels': Summary of significant events that occur at the location. Each book should have its own subheading. *'Gallery': Images of the location, either from the TV show or real life photos. Images not from the STARZ series must include attribution, preferably with a link back to the original source of the image. *'Trivia': Interesting facts about the location. Image Galleries Images help to provide a visual reference for the article in which they appear. The types of pages that usually have images are Characters, Locations, Episodes, and Seasons. The vast majority of images on this wiki are related to the STARZ television adaptation of the Outlander books. Of these, images edited and released by STARZ comprise most of the TV-related images. Such episode stills may be batch uploaded and included in the relevant episode's image gallery, as well as the galleries on relevant character pages. Additional guidelines for inclusion of images on the Outlander wiki: *File names for images from the TV series should ideally include the season and episode number (e.g. S03E01 for the first episode of Season 3). Additionally, names of characters or prominent subjects featured in the image may be included in the file name. *Images should be categorized appropriately. **To categorize by episode, the category format is "Images from title". **To categorize by character, the format is "Images of page name (TV)" (for TV characters) and "Images of page name" (for book character illustrations). *This wiki should not be used as a screencap repository. Any screencaps added to a page must serve a specific purpose (e.g. used to illustrate an episode summary or as part of a location article), and should not be batch uploaded solely for inclusion in an episode's image gallery. Category:Help Category:Community